Artie Dodge, child pickpocket
|DR= |immune= |resist= |SR= |fort=-1 |ref=+4 |will=-2 |weakness= |tag2= |spd=15 ft. |melee=mwk dagger +4 (1d3-3/19-20) |ranged=mwk dagger -1 (1d3-3/19-20) |BAB= |grp=-7 |atkopt= |gear= |sa= |tag3= |str=5 |dex=14 |con=9 |int=13 |wis=7 |cha=12 |sq= |feats=Skill Focus (Sleight of Hand) |skills=Appraise +5, bluff +5, disguise +5, escape artist +6, hide +10, knowledge (local) +5, profession (labourer) +2, sleight of hand +9 |possessions=mwk dagger, low-quality professional equipment, 1d2 gp, 1d10 sp and 3d8 cp |tag4= |variants= }} Personality and Notes "I don't know what you're talking about, sir! I'm just a labourer's boy!" The commoner's life is a hard one, especially in youth. The working class's children generally make contributions to the farm as soon as possible, given as much work as their young forms are able to provide. But even poor parents are still parents, and such children are still provided with love, affection, and rest when necessary (at least, in the sanitized version of medieval history most D&D® campaigns provide). Rather less fortunate are a city's orphans; often pushed out the door to serve as "apprentices" to taskmasters that have no care for the comfort or, often, the lives of their quarry. It's enough to make a child want to run away. Or at least, it was enough for Artie Dodge. "Look at him! I'm eating tonight." Artie is unwashed, blond, freckled and garbed in the clothes of a labourer's boy - in short, the very image of innocent childhood. However, "Artie" is actually a 10-year-old girl who hasn't worked an honest day in over a year, and far more deviously clever than she looks. Sleepy-eyed and inattentive, Artie is too smart and too lazy to live in the day-to-day routine she was provided by her orphanage and absconded to a life of crime. Her birth name is unknown or forgotten, but she's taken on the identity of a young working boy as part of her disguise. Her boy's cut of clothes completes the ruse, and she poses day to day as a child hurrying on their latest task. It provides excellent cover for her real means of income - pickpocket thievery. "Out of my way, ma'am! I don't want to catch the belt from my master!" Artie's sole possession of any value is a high-quality dagger he stole off the belt of a traveling adventurer. Its razor blade is quite capable of severing purse strings or cutting open pockets. But Artie is just as capable of filching coins and valuables by hand. Her usual routine is the single out the richest person in a crowd, sneak behind them or push past them - whichever is appropriate to the situation - and collect their riches by hand. Escape is lethargic as often as not; Artie is so confident in her disguise and sticky fingers that feels she doesn't have to run. Then it's home to some dingy alleyway or squatter's abode in poverty; thievery doesn't make that much money, but Artie is adamantly intent on being totally independent. There are plenty of child gangs that would appreciate her talents, but she can't work for anyone but herself. "Excuse me, sir." Plot Hooks The Old Favourite: Merchants hire adventurers to investigate a rash of robberies at the marketplace. Bonus points if they are provided this hook at the tavern in which they all met.